The microelectronics industry and research community is undertaking efforts to fabricate electronic devices (e.g., diodes and transistors) that are transparent to the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye. Circuits made of such devices would offer unique opportunities for innovation or improvement of consumer-, automotive-, and military-electronics systems.
For example, active-matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCD) are employed extensively in laptop computers and other information display products. The operation of an AMLCD display requires that each picture or display element (pixel) have a corresponding thin-film transistor (TFT) associated with it for selecting or addressing the pixel to be on or off. Currently, AMLCD displays employ transistor materials that may be deposited onto glass substrates but are not transparent (usually amorphous, polycrystalline, or continuous-grain silicon are the materials used to fabricate TFTs on glass). Thus, the portion of the display glass occupied by the addressing electronics is not available for transmission of light through the display. Therefore, the availability of transparent transistors for AMLCD addressing would improve display performance by allowing more light to be transmitted through the display.